UM News | Dec. 11, 2024
United Methodists over the past 12 months have marked the passing of trailblazers for women church leaders, a bishop who restarted his ministry after being forced into exile, a pioneering fast-food executive and a pastor who trained many of the Civil Rights Movement’s most prominent leaders in nonviolent resistance.
Here are 32 remembrances, listed in order of date of death. This list includes three deaths from late 2023.
Dr. Lurleen “Leigh” Lapuz-Juan
Clergy spouses — including those of bishops — often get overlooked. They stand in the background as the spotlight shines on their husband or wife preaching in a pulpit or presiding from the dais.
Retired Philippines Bishop Rodolfo A. “Rudy” Juan wanted to ensure that his wife of 30 years, Dr. Lurleen Lapuz-Juan, and her contributions to The United Methodist Church would get a spotlight of their own.
So following her death on Oct. 18, 2023, after a struggle with multiple myeloma, he published a book of tributes to his wife. He titled the book “Through the Lens of God’s Grace,” a reference to her career as an optometrist and expert in using lenses to improve people’s sight.
Lapuz-Juan was 54, and her husband newly retired, when she died. Her survivors also include son Rudolf and daughter Pearl.
Known to friends and family as Leigh, Lapuz-Juan grew up in a United Methodist family in Caloocan City near Manila. She met her future husband in August 1991, after he was appointed an associate pastor of Knox United Methodist Church, her home church. The two met when she and other young-adult church members took shelter from the rain in Juan’s parsonage after a mission outreach. She had just passed the optometry board exam.
The two married less than two years later, in February 1993, and renewed their wedding vows three more times — for their 10th wedding anniversary, for their 25th and again for their 30th.
Throughout their marriage, she supported her husband in his ministry while also taking on church leadership roles herself. She was an organizer for Walk to Emmaus, the spiritual renewal movement organized by The Upper Room. She led United Methodist health ministries including “Fit UMC,” an exercise initiative in the Davao Episcopal Area. She also worked with the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, traveling to remote areas to help raise awareness of HIV and fight stigma. In addition, she helped her husband in keeping a farm.
“Our enduring marriage was founded in common interests and values,” her husband wrote. “Both of us were actively engaged in campus ministry during our student days, reflecting a shared passion for service, God and the church.”
The Rev. Mel Munchinsky
The Rev. Miloslav “Mel” Munchinsky for years forged connections between United Methodists in the U.S. and in Eurasia, especially Ukraine. He died on Dec. 15, 2023, in Prescott Valley, Arizona. He was 76.
Friends remember the retired Desert Southwest Conference elder as a leader who faithfully served both churches in Arizona and the wider denomination as a mission leader with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
Munchinsky grew up in rural Saskatchewan, and served in the Canadian civil service before a sense of call took his life in a different direction.
After earning two graduate degrees from Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, he began serving Arizona United Methodist churches. His first appointments were as a member of the Wesleyan Church of Canada before he became a United Methodist elder.
Even as he continued service as a church pastor, he started working with Global Ministries to coordinate In Mission Together. The program promotes partnerships between churches in the United States and Western Europe and the countries of Eastern Europe. For Munchinsky, the ministry fulfilled his longtime dream to be a foreign service officer but in a different way.
He initially retired as a pastor in 2015 but accepted an appointment in 2018 as interim pastor at First United Methodist Church in Mesa, Arizona. He retired again the next year from local church ministry. However, he continued to coordinate In Mission Together even after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
He remained unwavering in his commitment to ministry in Eurasia even in retirement, said the Rev. Fred Vanderwerf, who succeeded Munchinsky as coordinator of In Mission Together in mid-2023.
Vanderwerf and Munchinsky connected after the invasion of Ukraine, united by their shared love of the country and shared history with United Methodist ministry in Eastern Europe.
“He faithfully held the gap until a new coordinator could be appointed, unwilling to leave the post vacant during such a critical time,” Vanderwerf said by e-mail. “Mel’s passion for evangelism shone brightly during discussions about the future of UM ministry. He envisioned supporting Ukrainian refugee communities forming faith communities in Europe, a reality we see today in places like Germany and Holland.”
Barbara C. Wendland
Barbara C. Wendland, a committed United Methodist who served and challenged the church in various ways, died of cancer on Dec. 25, 2023, in a Temple, Texas, hospital. She was 90.
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United Methodists remember her as theologian, philanthropist and justice-seeker. She also was at different times a writer, mathematician and homemaker.
She was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, but grew up in Houston, where she graduated Lamar High School as valedictorian. She then attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, graduating with highest honors with a degree in mathematics. She initially worked as a mathematician and programmer for an oil company in Dallas.
After her marriage in 1959 to Erroll Wendland, the couple moved to Temple, where she lived for the rest of her life. She volunteered for multiple civic organizations and served in various capacities at First United Methodist Church of Temple, where she was a member for more than 50 years. She also was twice a lay delegate to General Conference.
She reached many through her reform-minded newsletter, Connections, and through her books, including “Misfits: The Church’s Hidden Strength.” She also was a longtime supporter of the Reconciling Ministries Network that advocates for full inclusion of LGBTQ people in church life. In addition, she served on the executive board of Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology.
One great sadness she had late in life was her longtime church home’s disaffiliation from The United Methodist Church. But even amid her sorrow, she said she felt sustained by friendships within the wider United Methodist denomination.
“Barbara was a champion for laity and a champion for theological education,” the Rev. David Meredith, chair of the Reconciling Ministries Network board, said in a statement. “It is no exaggeration to say that the laity who lead the Reconciling movement, especially in the South Central Jurisdiction, were encouraged, resourced and empowered by her mission.”
Velma McConnell
Velma Merle Stutzman Duell McConnell died Jan. 24 — just a little over two months after her husband, the late Bishop Calvin D. McConnell. She was seven weeks from her 95th birthday.
For 22 years, she and the bishop lived at Willamette View Retirement Community in Portland, Oregon, and in that time helped build and enrich the residential community.
She had already led a full life and he was already serving as bishop of the Pacific Northwest Conference when the two married in December 1988. They were both widowed. She and her late husband and the bishop and his late wife had been friends back when the bishop was a chaplain and assistant professor at Willamette University.
She had majored in home economics and sociology in college; friends say she worked for social change her entire life.
After her husband’s retirement and the move to Portland, she continued to be active in her local United Methodist church and on various committees at the Willamette View Retirement Community. She was instrumental in forming the pastoral care team and was active in the International Relations and Public Affairs Committee, served the League of Women Voters and frequently led vespers services. She also volunteered to help teen mothers, infants and children and cared for people with AIDS. Throughout these years, she also was an active member of the Reconciling Ministries Network that supports LGBTQ people’s equality. She and her husband were also big supporters of Africa University, the United Methodist university in Mutare, Zimbabwe.
Retired Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, who was a district superintendent under Bishop McConnell, said the Pacific Northwest Conference clergywomen loved her so much that they gave Velma McConnell her own crozier. She had the crozier near her bedside even in her last days.
“She marched in Pride parades, she wrote letters, and she was a silent witness at General Conference from time to time,” Swenson said during the Council of Bishops spring memorial service.
“She spoke up. After all, she boldly proclaimed, ‘I am not Mrs. Bishop. I am Velma.’”
The Rev. Carol Alois Ososo
The Rev. Carol Alois Ososo, retired dean of superintendents for the Kenya-Ethiopia Conference, was known as a father figure with an infectious laugh. His ministry contributed immensely to the growth and development of The United Methodist Church in Kenya and on the continent of Africa.
Ososo, who also served as Busia District superintendent in the Kenya-Ethiopia Conference, died Feb. 19 in Kisumu, Kenya, at age 77.
Born and raised in Kenya, he trained as a teacher at Eregi Teachers Training College and as a pastor at United Methodist Theological College in Mukono, Uganda.
He was a teacher and mentor who planted several churches. He also served as the former chair of the conference Board of Pensions and Health Benefits.
East Africa Area Bishop Daniel Wandabula said Ososo easily made friends in communities where he lived and positively affected lives across the United Methodist connection.
“He was the kind of person who reflected the love of God to both church and neighbors,” Wandabula said.
Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker
Retired Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker, a learned and independent-minded presence in The United Methodist Church, died March 28 at home in Keller, Virginia, after being in hospice care for about a year. He was 75.
Whitaker began to compose an essay last year, after getting bad medical test results. “The moment has arrived for me when death has become personal,” he wrote. “Recently I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer that has metastasized in my liver. So then in the time that remains for me I have one more thing to learn in life, which is to die.”
Whitaker’s account — titled “Learning to Die” — would extend to more than 14,000 words, touching on his upbringing, his understanding of Christian faith and specifically his views on prayer and the afterlife. The original recipients of his essay shared it with others, and soon it was on the internet, finding many more readers and becoming the subject of a column by religion writer Terry Mattingly.
Whitaker was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and grew up just north of there in the town of Redwood, where his family attended the Methodist church. He felt a call to ministry early and began to serve country churches while attending Hinds Community College. From there, he went to Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, graduating summa cum laude.
At Candler School of Theology, Whitaker earned a Master of Divinity, again with high honors. He was ordained in the Mississippi Conference. He and his wife, Melba, wanted to experience a different part of the country, and in 1975 moved to the Virginia Conference. He was elected in 2001, during a special session of the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference, called to fill a vacancy created by the death of Bishop Cornelius Henderson. Whitaker served his entire tenure as active bishop in the Florida Conference and helped with hosting duties of the 2012 General Conference in Tampa.
Whitaker served as the Council of Bishops’ representative to bilateral dialogues with other Christian communions including the Roman Catholic Church. He also chaired the council’s task force that produced “God’s Renewed Creation,” a pastoral letter addressing poverty, environmental degradation and the proliferation of weapons and violence.
Retired United Methodist Bishop Charlene Kammerer, who also served on the bishops’ task force, called Whitaker’s essay “perhaps his last gift to the church.”
“I will miss Tim, his wisdom, his understated humor, his perspectives on all issues and his good heart,” Kammerer said in a written tribute.
The Rev. Kongolo Clement Chijika
The Rev. Kongolo Clement Chijika, president of the Methodist University of Katanga in Congo and a delegate to General Conference, died of cancer April 12 while in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was 68.
A well-known United Methodist leader and educator in Africa, Chijika studied theology at the Mulungwishi Mission of The United Methodist Church. After earning his doctorate in theology at Laval University in Quebec City, he returned to Congo, where he worked as a professor of Old Testament, dean of the School of Theology and then president of Methodist University of Katanga.
Chijika was active in the Africa Association of United Methodist Theological Institutions, the Africa Association of Methodist Institutions of Higher Education (serving as its president from 2019 to 2023), the Commission of the Central Conference Theological Education Fund and the International Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges and Universities. He collaborated with the United Methodist boards of Higher Education and Ministry as well as Global Ministries on various projects in Africa and other parts of the world.
Chijika faced challenges at his work at Katanga Methodist University in Mulungwishi, including the COVID pandemic and rising grain prices. Through it all, he kept his sense of humor and commitment to following Christ.
“Though the Rev. Kongolo was dean, professor, treasurer, president and central conference education and ministry leader, I knew him as friend, caregiver and brother in Christ,” said Tom Stanton, general counsel at the Texas Methodist Foundation and Wesleyan Impact Partners, who has done missionary work in Africa.
“He and I laughed when I told him I learned French so that I could better learn from him.”
The Rev. Nan Self
As one of the founders of the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women, the Rev. Nancy “Nan” Grissom Self championed women’s equality in all levels of church leadership including as clergy. She also led the way in raising awareness of sexual misconduct within the church.
However, this trailblazer for women leaders was not ordained a United Methodist elder herself until 1989. She finally received full clergy membership after already spending much of her life serving in Methodist and then United Methodist ministry in various ways.
Self died April 13 at her home in Redlands, California. She was 94.
Born in Akron, Ohio, Self was an active participant in the campus Wesley Foundation while a student at Ohio University in Athens. After graduation, she served as a short-term missionary at the Frances de Pauw Home, a former Methodist boarding school for Latina girls in Hollywood, California.
She would eventually lead the Wesley Foundation at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. There, she met her husband, Norman Self. The two eventually attended United Methodist-related Claremont School of Theology, where she was one of four women students.
In 1961, both she and her husband were ordained deacons — what was then the first step toward full clergy membership. While her husband went on to become an elder, she was cautioned that if she took that step, she would jeopardize his career.
She held off on elder ordination even as she continued as a Wesley Foundation campus minister alongside her husband. She also found a new role as an advocate for women in the church.
After the birth of The United Methodist Church in 1968, she helped lead the formation of what became the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women. Her leadership in that effort led to her appointment as co-director alongside Judy Leaming Elmer in the commission’s first executive secretariat. She and her husband divorced in 1985 but remained lifelong friends until his passing in 2023.
From 1991 to 1999, she was pastor-in-charge of University United Methodist Church in Redlands. Even after mandatory retirement, she continued to preach, lead retreats and mentor younger clergy.
“Today, GCSRW stands on the shoulders of those who went before us, leading conversations and challenging the church for full equity in all ministry levels of The United Methodist Church,” Dawn Wiggins Hare, the commission’s outgoing top executive, said in a statement. “Thanks to Nancy Grissom Self and countless others, 50 years later we are humbled by our legacy at GCSRW.”
The Rev. Cecil Williams
The Rev. Cecil Williams, a respected social justice activist and longtime pastor of San Francisco’s Glide Memorial Church, died April 22 at the age of 94.
Williams is best known for his stewardship of the former United Methodist church in the Tenderloin neighborhood that he became pastor of in 1963. He and future wife Janice Mirikitani, who died in 2021, helped revive Glide and develop it into a world-renowned congregation and nonprofit service provider.
Chief among the church’s initiatives is the Free Meals Program, launched in 1980, that provides three hot meals a day to anyone in need. The church’s ministry was featured in the 2006 Will Smith movie “The Pursuit of Happyness,” in which Williams had a cameo.
The pastor also became known for welcoming LGBTQ members at a time when many churches shut them out. He was an unflinching champion of civil rights for all people.
The grandson of a slave, Albert Cecil Williams was born and raised in the segregated West Texas town of San Angelo. In 1952, he was one of five Black students who desegregated Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He earned his master’s from the university’s United Methodist-related Perkins School of Theology. He received Perkins’ distinguished alumnus award in 1996. Thirteen years later, the whole university honored him and named the Williams Preaching Lab in his honor.
“Rev. Williams’ life, vision and leadership will continue to inspire all of us at SMU,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner in a statement. “It took courage to break the color barrier at SMU, and we see his legacy in the diversity of our student body today. He carried that courage with him throughout a life of advocacy, possessing the rare ability to turn passion into action to better the lives of marginalized individuals.”
The Rev. Nick Elliott
The Rev. Nicholas “Nick” Scott Elliott, who helped countless people put their lives back together after natural disasters, died April 21. He was 77.
Elliott, a native of Shelby, North Carolina, worked as a brick mason before following a call to ordained ministry in The United Methodist Church. He was pastor of multiple congregations in the South Carolina Conference.
His call to missional ministry began during his first volunteer trip, when he was doing work as a brick mason. On a trash mountain in Haiti, he watched a naked child eat an orange peel and chew on used gum. He felt God ask him, “What are you going to do about it?”
For 10 years, he served as executive director of the Southeast Jurisdiction’s United Methodist Volunteers in Mission. In that role, which he held until his retirement in 2010, he helped coordinate responses of United Methodist volunteers wherever disaster struck.
Through his missional service, he touched lives in every U.S. jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church and in 110 countries. He especially felt connection to the people of Cuba.
The Rev. Scott Parrish, North Georgia Conference disaster response coordinator, takes inspiration from Elliott as he works with United Methodist volunteers from across the U.S. on Hurricane Helene recovery.
“When I recall Nick, I’m reminded of his leadership in mission in the field, in training and through sermons across the U.S. and world,” Parrish said. “The brick mason-turned-pastor was always practical and always inviting the Church — all of us — into God’s work to care for our neighbors. He exemplified the UMVIM faith in action and urged us into mission service — here and around the world.”
C. David Lundquist
C. David Lundquist, a lawyer by training and devoted Christian disciple, served as a lay person at the highest levels of The United Methodist Church.
From 1986 to 2000, he served as general secretary — that is, the top executive — of the General Council on Ministries. The Dayton, Ohio-based agency was responsible for the coordination, evaluation and research for the programs and ministries of the worldwide United Methodist Church. In 2004, the Connectional Table succeeded the General Council on Ministries as the denomination’s coordinating body.
Lundquist died May 2 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he was a longtime member of First United Methodist Church. He was 89.
A native of Plainwell, Michigan, he attended the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. He also served for three years as a student manager of the University of Michigan football team. After graduation, he earned his law degree from the United Methodist-related Duke University School of Law. He then worked in law practice.
His obituary said that Lundquist was “blessed with the love of two wonderful women in his life.” He was married to his childhood sweetheart, Georgia, for more than 55 years until her death in 2013. Three years later, he found love again and married Sue Paul, who survives him. His survivors also include his three children and their spouses, Sue’s two children, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
His work as general secretary involved extensive travel in the United States and internationally. He also was a member of the World Methodist Council executive board and an accredited visitor to international meetings of the World Council of Churches.
In 1980, he was instrumental in electing the first woman bishop of The United Methodist Church, Marjorie Matthews. He also worked tirelessly to remove barriers against gay clergy and same-sex weddings. His death on May 2 coincided with the vote at this year’s General Conference to remove the denomination’s 52-year-old anti-gay stance.
Bishop Kennetha Bigham-Tsai, who now leads the Iowa Conference and co-leads the Illinois Great Rivers Conference, got to know Lundquist when she was a pastor and district superintendent in Michigan. She said he was very supportive when she took on a similar denominational role to Lundquist’s as the top executive of the Connectional Table.
“David lived Micah 6:8. He advocated for justice, especially for our LGBTQ siblings. Mercy was at the center of his being. He walked faithfully and humbly with his God,” she said.
“He was an integral part of my ministry, a helpful mentor and a good friend. … My prayer is that his legacy for justice will continue through me and so many others whose lives he touched.”
Bishop C.P. Minnick
Bishop Carlton P. Minnick didn’t hesitate to preach about the demands of Christian faith.
“It’s so much easier to sing ‘My Jesus, I Love Thee’ than it is to love like Jesus loved,” Minnick, who went by “C.P.,” said in one sermon.
Minnick, a former Council of Bishops president, died at home in Raleigh, North Carolina, on May 4. He was 96.
In his own risk-taking efforts to follow Jesus, Minnick championed women in ministry and helped lead the Council of Bishops to speak out against U.S. nuclear weapons policy. He also became known as a superb Bible teacher, and as a bishop who didn’t put on airs.
Early in his marriage, Minnick worked for Appalachian Power company. He’d grown up Southern Baptist but joined his wife, Mary Ann, in attending a Methodist church in Lynchburg, Virginia, and helping with its youth program.
That experience, and his wife’s support, led him to answer a call to Methodist ministry at age 23 and as a young husband and father. He served in appointments as a pastor and eventually a district superintendent in the Virginia Conference,
In 1980, Minnick was elected a bishop at the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference and assigned to the Jackson, Mississippi, Episcopal Area, which then included the Mississippi and North Mississippi conferences. After four years in Mississippi, Minnick was assigned to lead the Raleigh-based North Carolina Conference.
After retiring from the active episcopacy in 1996, Minnick became bishop-in-residence at Duke Divinity School, a position he held for a decade. In 2000, he had a key role in the decision that Duke Chapel would be open to same-sex weddings.
“His leadership style was marked with openness and grace,” said the Rev. Belton Joyner, Minnick’s assistant in the North Carolina Conference. “It was clear what he felt, but he had room in his heart for relationships with those with whom he did not agree.”
The Rev. Isaac Broune
The Rev. Isaac Broune, an influential communicator and pastor who played a significant role at every level of the church, is remembered in his home country of Côte d’Ivoire and across the global United Methodist connection as a kind person who walked with Jesus.
Broune died May 5 after a brief battle with cancer. He was 48. Broune is survived by his wife, Diane; son, Jason Mike; and a large family of relatives.
His father was a fisherman and his mother a fishmonger. He later wrote he wanted to pursue the same occupation but in different waters — becoming a fisher of people. His favorite Bible passage was Romans 10:14b -15a: “And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”
At 17, he became a Sunday school teacher and later a licensed lay preacher. After graduating from the University of Abidjan-Cocody, Broune went to work as a communicator for what was then the Protestant Methodist Church of Cote d’Ivoire. When his denomination joined The United Methodist Church in the early 2000s, Broune formed lasting relationships with a broad family of communicators and began collaborating with partners at United Methodist Communications.
Broune later earned a Master of Divinity at Vanderbilt Divinity School and returned to his home country of Côte d’Ivoire to lead local churches, even as he continued his communications ministry. In the Côte d’Ivoire Conference, Broune also served as assistant to Bishop Benjamin Boni, among other roles.
“Isaac was a passionate leader who embodied the hope and love of the Gospel in his work and life,” said Dan Krause, top staff executive of United Methodist Communications. “His face always wore a smile, even as he filled multiple roles simultaneously and dedicated himself fully to each.”
Lloyd Ambrosius
Lloyd Ambrosius taught American history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for nearly five decades, winning Fulbright fellowships and becoming a leading authority on Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policy.
Along the way, Ambrosius also made history — of the United Methodist kind.
He played a crucial role in creating and growing Encounter with Christ in Latin America and the Caribbean. That endowed fund, administered by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, has over the years distributed more than $1 million in small grants for Methodist mission work in Central and South America, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Initiatives included pastor education in Nicaragua, a new Sunday school curriculum in the Virgin Islands, livestock care training for rural women in Guatemala and a medical boat ministry in the Amazon.
Ambrosius died May 7 at age 82, a few days after attending the United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. There he’d volunteered in the exhibition hall booth for Encounter with Christ in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“His passion for its need and relevance in the Latin America and Caribbean region kept him focused not only on the fund’s creation but on its growth,” said the Rev. Cynthia Weems, who succeeded Ambrosius as chair of the Encounter with Christ advisory board.
Bishop Joseph C. Humper
Retired Sierra Leone Bishop Joseph C. Humper, who died May 7 at age 81, was an ecumenical and national leader who contributed to restoring peace following the civil strife in his country.
Humper held several leadership positions including president of the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone, president of the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone and honorary president of the World Conference of Religion and Race.
He was elected to the episcopacy in 1992 by the West Africa Central Conference and was assigned to the Sierra Leone Area, where he served until his retirement in 2008.
Humper served the government of Sierra Leone in various capacities. He was chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, starting in 2002 following a brutal civil war.
For his service, he received the Grand Command Order of the Rokel Sierra Leone — the country’s highest and most prestigious decoration awarded to recognize citizens who have distinguished themselves by making valuable contributions to the country in areas of public service, arts and sciences and philanthropy.
Humper is survived by his wife, Nancy Mamie Humper, and four children: James, Josephine, Joseph and Marvel. He was buried at Ascension Town Cemetery in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
“For us, he was a devoted and well-respected servant leader of the global United Methodist Church,” said retired Bishops Arthur F. Kulah and John G. Innis and current resident Bishop Samuel Quire Jr. of Liberia in a joint statement.
“He was an encourager and a strong advocate for peace and justice for all of God’s children. We served respectfully and understandingly together on (the) Council of Bishops and the West Africa Central Conference in faith, hope and love.”
The Rev. Ellison Kamupira
The Rev. Ellison Kamupira, renowned evangelist, director of ceremonies and chaplain-general of Zimbabwe’s largest funeral services company, died May 11 at age 75.
Kamupira succumbed to cancer at a private hospital in Harare after battling the disease for a decade.
The longtime United Methodist was credited with being humorous while spreading the gospel, comforting thousands of bereaved families and presiding over church and national events. He developed the knack for prayers that usually ended with everyone laughing while he maintained a straight face.
Kamupira knew no boundaries. The lack of professional qualifications did not deter him from touching the lives of ordinary people, politicians, national leaders and Christians from all denominations.
From humble beginnings in Mutambara about 50 miles from Mutare, Kamupira used his love of God and an inborn ability to preach to become a renowned evangelist and a sought-after director of ceremonies. He was appointed a full-time church evangelist in 1998, serving the Harare East and Harare West districts.
“The Rev. Kamupira’s routinely lively ministry touched many lives by soothing the ill and consoling the bereaved in very difficult times,” said Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson D. Mnangagwa in a condolence message. “His sermons went beyond denominations, thus ecumenically symbolizing the unity of faiths and churches in our nation.”
The Rev. James Lawson
The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., who made it his life’s work to build a more just nation through nonviolence, died June 9 at age 95.
During his lifetime, he studied and taught the nonviolent resistance developed by Mohandas Gandhi, walked with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and trained many of the Civil Rights Movement’s most prominent leaders, including the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis and the Rev. C.T. Vivian.
Lawson kept his deeply held faith that nonviolence is the way to peace when he elected to be a conscientious objector of the draft during the Korean War and was jailed for 13 months while he was a student at Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. He was arrested for organizing lunch counter sit-ins and other nonviolent protests in 1960 in Nashville. His civil rights activity got him expelled from Vanderbilt Divinity School. Decades later, Vanderbilt invited Lawson back as an honored professor and established an institute on nonviolence that bears his name.
While a pastor at Centenary United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, he invited his friend King to support church efforts in the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike. King delivered his “Mountaintop” speech on the eve of his assassination. Even with great personal loss, Lawson never lost his commitment to nonviolence or the Christian faith.
After serving churches in Tennessee, Lawson led Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles from 1974 until his retirement in 1999. He remained on staff as pastor emeritus until his death. He never retired from fighting for civil rights and continued to speak, teach and inspire young minds. Stories abound about how his ministry changed hearts.
“Jim was a staunch Methodist,” said Dennis C. Dickerson, the Rev. James M. Lawson chair of history emeritus at Vanderbilt University.
“He often cited the works and the ideas of John Wesley and said one time he was often amused because people thought that he was a Hindu mystic, because he was just so open as far as ideas and ethics and all of that, but he was a dyed-in-the-wool Methodist, a real son of John Wesley.”
Christopher Sylvah
Christopher Rudolph “Ina” Sylvah helped bring solar ovens to people in Africa and the Caribbean and to Native American communities across the southwestern U.S.
The United Methodist died July 1 of a sudden cardiac incident after completing his mission with the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. He was 67.
A native of Sierra Leone, Sylvah spent much of his life in Minnesota, where he and his wife, Winifred, were members of Camphor Memorial United Methodist Church in St. Paul. He worked in banking for more than 20 years and volunteered with a number of civic organizations including a group of Sierra Leonian ex-pats in Minnesota.
After retiring from the finance industry, he decided to dedicate his life to full-time Christian mission. He fulfilled that calling with Solar Oven Partners, a ministry of the Dakotas Conference.
In 2018, Sylvah returned to his home country of Sierra Leone as part of a Volunteers in Mission team for Solar Oven Partners. In February 2023, he flew back again — this time as the United Methodist ministry’s new director.
A solar oven uses the energy of direct sunlight to heat or cook food and pasteurize drinks, reducing waterborne illnesses. “It was so satisfying to be hands-on with the people we were serving — teaching them to use the oven for alternative cooking and showing them how it will impact their finances by having more money in their pockets rather than spent on charcoal or wood,” Sylvah told the Dakotas Conference last year.
In addition to his homeland, Sylvah’s solar-oven ministry also took him to the Dominican Republic and to Native American communities. Throughout his ministry, Sylvah was known for his strong leadership, calm demeanor and warm smile for people of all walks of life.
“One of the things that stood out for us when hiring Christopher was the fact that he was from Sierra Leone and knew the culture and even several people down there, so we were glad to have him because our work there blossomed with him,” said the Rev. Phil Lint, chair of the Solar Oven Partners board.
“He also was interested in being sure we spent money wisely. Concerning materials, he asked each shopkeeper to provide an inventory — it turned out to be very important. He was also a good leader of devotions and brought a good perspective to our ministry. He reminded us that this was God’s work, and not our own, reminding us that we are doing Kingdom work.”
The Rev. Tom Butcher
The Rev. Thomas George “Tom” Butcher, who helped The United Methodist Church renew a denomination-wide commitment to planting churches, died July 27 in Carrolton, Texas. He was 75.
Butcher was born in Michigan and spent most of his youth in the city of Corunna, where he played varsity football in high school and earned the nickname “Corunna Flash.” He would go on to earn a bachelor’s degree at United Methodist-related Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan, and master’s degrees in Christian education and divinity from the Pacific School of Religion in California.
He began pastoring churches in the 1970s in what is now the Michigan Conference before transferring to what is now the Desert Southwest Conference. He served as pastor at multiple churches in the conference that encompasses Arizona and southern Nevada. He also met the love of his life, Charly. The two married in 1993.
Beyond his pastoral duties, Butcher took on significant leadership roles including as Desert Southwest Conference council director, director of congregational development and director of new faith communities. He also served as a district superintendent.
That experience led him to serve in the 2000s as the first executive officer at Path 1, the United Methodist church-planting program at Discipleship Ministries. He got the program off the ground before returning in 2010 to the Desert Southwest Conference, where he again served as director of new faith communities and as a pastor. He and his wife moved to Texas in 2018 to be closer to family.
Discipleship Ministries credits his visionary guidance with doubling the annual rate of new United Methodist church starts.
The Rev. Bener Agtarap, the current executive director of Path 1, said Butcher had a profound influence on his life and career.
“God used Brother Tom to guide and support me, especially during my early days with Path 1,” he said in a Discipleship Ministries statement. “I am forever grateful for his trust in me as the first staff member of Path 1, working alongside him in its initial months. His faith in my abilities and his unwavering support were instrumental in shaping my journey.”
The Rev. William Arthur Holmes
For 24 years starting in 1974, the Rev. William Arthur Holmes was senior pastor of Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church in the U.S. capital. In that prominent church, he preached and provided pastoral care to a number of the nation’s leaders, including members of Congress and the Supreme Court.
But he first made national news as a young pastor in Texas — calling his Dallas community to account after the assassination of a leader he had never met, President John F. Kennedy. The sermon led to death threats, forcing him and his family to go into hiding under police protection.
Holmes died Aug. 9 in Frederick, Maryland, eight days before his 95th birthday.
He grew up in Oklahoma and Arkansas, where he graduated from United Methodist-related Hendrix College. He went on to earn his master’s degree from Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of theology in Dallas. He then attended Union Theological Seminary in New York, studying with renowned theologians Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr.
Back in Dallas, he served a stint as associate pastor at what is now Highland Park United Methodist Church. In 1957, he was appointed pastor of what is now Northaven United Methodist — then only 2 years old. The church would prove open to his progressive ideas on theology and social concerns.
On the day of the assassination, Nov. 22, 1963, Holmes and his wife, Nancy, were part of the crowd at the Dallas Trade Mart, awaiting a luncheon with President Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
That Sunday, he delivered a 14-minute sermon titled “One Thing Worse Than This.” He argued that good people in Dallas had for too long stood by silently, giving free reign to political extremists. The sermon made the CBS News anchored by Walter Cronkite. That’s when the trouble began. Police advised Holmes and Nancy to take their sons out of school and leave home. Under police guard, the family stayed with members of their congregation until after that Thanksgiving weekend.
With his wife’s support, he continued to serve Northaven until 1965. He held the high-profile pulpit at Metropolitan Memorial until his retirement in 1998. While in D.C., he served in a number of leadership roles including as a member of the governing board of the National Council of Churches. He authored four books and hosted the TV program “Perspective.”
But even after his retirement, the memory of his controversial 1963 sermon lingered on, said his son the Rev. Chris Holmes, who like his father became a United Methodist pastor.
“I work across our denomination and do a lot of training,” the younger Holmes told United Methodist News in 2013. “Every year I meet pastors that know my Dad and would go out of their way to hear him preach and know about what happened in Dallas.”
The Rev. Bruce W. Robbins
When anti-Muslim feelings flared after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Rev. Bruce W. Robbins counseled his fellow United Methodists “not to bear false witness against your neighbor” or “judge another tradition by its worst practitioners and yours by its best.”
And then, a month later, Robbins arranged for directors of the denomination’s Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns to visit the Islamic Center of Southern California as part of a previously scheduled board meeting.
That was who he was: a committed ecumenist who embraced connections with all religions.
Robbins, 73, died Aug. 3 at his home in Minneapolis. Robbins had been living with multiple myeloma and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in June 2023, according to his children, Adam and Casey Robbins.
He held both staff and top leadership roles with the Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns from 1986 to 2004 and then served as senior pastor of Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis until his retirement in 2013. His focus on church unity also supported full inclusion for LGBTQ members.
His world was as large as the global gatherings he participated in and as small as the church in East Barnard, Vermont, where he preached and served as the music leader for many summer seasons.
Bishop Sally Dyck, who was his bishop in Minnesota and recently served as the denomination’s ecumenical officer, remembered how Robbins always kept ecumenism “front and center” in the work and witness of the church.
“He was just an incredible advocate,” she said, “and always had a teaching moment.”
Bilha Alegría
Bilha Ramírez Alegría, who served United Methodist agencies during a long career, died Aug. 24 in Franklin, Tennessee. She was 73.
Throughout her life, Alegría also exemplified Christian hospitality ensuring neither family, friends nor even strangers went away hungry for food or the helpful information she could provide.
She worked for many years for United Methodist Communications, serving as staff for El Intérprete Magazine, InfoServ and Spanish media resources. She retired from United Methodist Communications in 2014.
She also was an editor for Spanish-language Sunday school publications for the United Methodist Publishing House and served on the board of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry from 1984 to 1987.
A native of Mexico, Alegría attended public schools both in her home country and in Texas, where her family moved when she was in middle school. She received a bachelor’s degree from Pan American University in Edinburg, Texas, and was a licensed school teacher in Texas and Tennessee.
She and her husband of 49 years, Raúl “Rudy” Alegría, were both longtime United Methodist leaders who spent much of their careers serving the church. In addition to her husband, her survivors include her two daughters, three grandchildren and four siblings.
Family was very important to Bilha Alegría, and in her retirement she welcomed United Methodists around the globe into her family traditions as a participant in United Methodist Communications’ YouTube series “Our United Methodist Table.” In videos, she shared recipes for her family’s traditional holiday dishes including capirotada, a Lenten bread pudding; tamales, a Christmas tradition; and Flan Napolitano, a common Christmas dessert.
“Bilha opened her heart and her home and shared her family’s treasured recipes to pass those on to her family and to her church family,” said Lilla Marigza, Alegría’s longtime colleague at United Methodist Communications who produces “Our United Methodist Table.”
“It is wonderful to have those now as we miss Bilha as a reminder of what an amazing soul she was.”
The Rev. David Severe
The Rev. David Lee Severe served as executive director of The United Methodist Church’s South Central Jurisdiction for 11 years. He died Aug. 27 at age 89 at his Oklahoma home surrounded by family.
In the U.S., the five jurisdictions are responsible for electing bishops and supporting shared ministries within their borders. The South Central Jurisdiction encompasses United Methodist annual conferences in eight states extending from Louisiana to New Mexico and north to Nebraska.
An Oklahoma native, Severe served as pastor in the Oklahoma Conference for 51 years starting as a student pastor while studying at Oklahoma City University. He completed his undergraduate studies at the United Methodist-related university and eventually earned a Master of Theology from Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology. Oklahoma City University later honored him with a Doctorate of Divinity.
In 1991, he began his appointment as executive director of the Oklahoma Conference Council on Ministries and Church Growth and Development, where he served until retirement at age 70. He also took on other conference and denominational leadership roles. At the denominational level, he was chosen as the Outstanding Conference Board of Health & Welfare Chair.
After retiring from the conference, he took on his role as the jurisdiction’s executive director. He also co-wrote and published “The History of the South Central Jurisdiction 1968-2008.”
The Rev. Derrek Belase, who now follows in Severe’s footsteps as the Oklahoma Conference director of connectional ministries, said that he is very much aware that he is continuing work that Severe began.
“The continuing legacy of David Severe in Oklahoma and also the South Central Jurisdiction, it just can’t be understated,” Belase said. He observed that Severe calmly helped the jurisdiction as it dealt with challenges including most recently disaffiliations that included the departure of Severe’s longtime church home.
“That was very painful. Yet, he remained faithful to end,” Belase said. “He was just a quintessential United Methodist.”
Albino Rivera Pineda
Albino Rivera Pineda, who led Hispanic ministries for the California-Pacific Conference for eight years and served on the board of United Methodist Global Ministries, died Sept. 14 at his home in Santa Paula, California. He was 100.
Pineda was born in Phoenix, but after his father’s early death, his mother moved the family to Mexico. Pineda returned to the U.S. in 1942 and served in the U.S. artillery battalion fighting in Germany during World War II.
He had little formal education but a lifelong passion for learning and reading. Back in the U.S., he married and began raising a family. He also became one of the first Hispanic heavy-equipment operators in southern California. He worked on construction of the Matilija Dam and laid pipelines and storm drains throughout California and Nevada.
After retiring in 1991, he eagerly accepted the opportunity of a second career as executive director of the Hispanic Ministries of the California-Pacific Conference. While in that role for eight years, he created programs to identify and train Spanish-speaking United Methodist pastors and lay missionaries.
Pineda was an active member of El Buen Pastor United Methodist Church in Santa Paula, California. He served in various lay roles. He also was involved in various civic organizations. As someone who labored in the fields during his youth, he also took great pride in raising funds to build the Santa Paula monument to farm workers.
“Al Pineda is an honored saint among the Californians who knew him,” said Bishop Dottie Escobedo-Frank, who leads the California-Pacific Conference. “His witness of Christ taught us, among many things, to honor and value the farmworkers of Santa Paula. His life is our treasure.”
The Rev. Nancy Webb
The Rev. Nancy Webb was blind, but she never lost her vision for working toward a more inclusive United Methodist Church.
The retired United Methodist elder, who was a pioneer for disability rights and a longtime advocate for social justice, died Sept. 16 in Baltimore at age 76.
Webb was involved in the creation of the Association of Ministers with Disabilities, a United Methodist caucus, and served as chair of the Baltimore-Washington Conference Commission on Disability Concerns. She also was a longtime advocate for LGBTQ equality in church life. Throughout her ministry, she made connections to people, relying on individuals to read to her and inspiring those she met with her positive spirit and zest for life.
The Anderson, Indiana, native spent her entire ministerial career in the Baltimore-Washington Conference. She began her ministry as a lay person serving as a director of Christian education. After discerning a call to ordination, she returned to United Methodist-related Wesley Theological Seminary to earn a Master of Divinity to add to her Master of Religious Education.
As she went through the ordination process, she was able to convince members of the Board of Ordained Ministry that she could handle the appointments wherever she was sent. Altogether before her retirement in 2016, she served 39 years in the conference — three as a Christian educator and 36 as an associate pastor or pastor-in-charge. She eventually became a mentor to other clergy candidates.
“The Rev. Nancy was a disability leader who shined on many fronts including disability ministries, social justice and other ministries, both locally and nationally, that supported accessibility and inclusion,” said the Rev. Leo Yates Jr., a longtime friend and coordinator of accessibility and inclusion in the Baltimore-Washington Conference.
“She was a pioneer who also supported the United Methodist disability caucus (AMD), connecting and collaborating with other caucuses as well. She’ll be sorely missed!”
Hap Hopkins
Harry Hopkins II, known to everyone he met as “Hap,” was the kind of person who was always reaching out to help someone.
He died Oct. 10 doing just that — helping Floridians recover from Hurricane Milton. He accidentally made contact with a downed power line while clearing debris. He was 67. His survivors include Amy, his wife of 30 years; two sons and their wives; a stepson; and seven grandchildren.
Hopkins, named for his paternal grandfather, was born and raised in Orlando, Florida. He earned a degree in forensic science from the University of Central Florida and went on to a career with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
As a longtime member of First United Methodist Church Orlando, he touched lives in all kinds of circumstances. He was an usher and active volunteer with Family Promise, a ministry that helps homeless families. He was also involved with the Sunday Evening Men’s Group and New Covenant Sunday school. Newcomers to the church would often say he was the first one to greet them.
He also was an assistant Scout leader with his sons, who each earned the Eagle Scout award.
Two years ago, he began volunteering with the Florida Conference’s Early Response Team, providing a calming presence in the first days of disaster recovery. A week before he died helping with Milton recovery, he was with the team responding to the damage wreaked by Hurricane Helene.
“He was always that person who would say yes when you needed something. And he was asking, how can I help? Even if we didn’t ask, he was reaching out, just wanting to know how he could help,” Trish Warren, Florida Conference disaster relief coordinator, told Joe Henderson, the conference’s news editor.
“The thing with ERT is that caring Christian presence, and he truly was that caring Christian presence, listening to the survivors, working at their pace, and not just rushing in to get the job done.”
Brad Bradley
James T. “Brad” Bradley, who died Oct. 13 at age 101, photographed confirmation services and countless other church events at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas for 22 years. The dedicated sports photographer also captured 75 Cotton Bowls — pausing only one year because of the pandemic restrictions in 2020.
He is a Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame member.
He was born on a farm in Tarrant County, attended North Texas Agricultural College (now the University of Texas at Arlington) and entered World War II in 1943.
Following the war’s end in 1945, he married Betty Laughead and joined Laughead Photography after his father-in-law, Jim Laughead, was contracted to take yearbook photos for Southern Methodist University. In 1948, Brad photographed his first Cotton Bowl Classic. He fondly remembers 1948 Heisman Trophy winner Doak Walker, who played for the SMU Mustangs and was the subject of his favorite photo.
The SMU connection led Bradley to join nearby Highland Park United Methodist Church, where he attended the congregation’s Sanctuary services nearly every Sunday for decades.
“Our friend Brad was a wonderful human being!” Highland Park United Methodist Church staff said in a statement. The church recently interviewed him for a video about his ministry.
“His compassion, quick wit, photographic skill (taking photos of each year’s Confirmation class until he could no longer climb a ladder), and sincere interest in others was well known in our community, church and across the country.”
The Rev. Norest Munetsi Nyakudanga
The Rev. Norest Munetsi Nyakudanga worked tirelessly as a lay preacher to spread the good news across the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area and beyond its borders in mission areas for over four decades.
Whenever he learned a church member was ill or had died, Nyakundanga would rush to bring comfort to the family.
True to his calling, Nyakudanga collapsed and died while preaching at Chisipiti United Methodist Church in Harare on Oct. 22 and was conferred with a posthumous honorary ordination at his burial. He was 65.
Nyakudanga was one of the unsung heroes of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle against colonial masters. Under the nom de guerre “Chinodhuuka Chinoparadza,” he gathered intelligence for freedom fighters, nursed injured guerillas and mobilized the masses.
Among his rare achievements was the admission to full membership of the Zimbabwe men’s organization Mubvuwi we United Methodist Church in 1984, when he was still a bachelor. Membership into the organization is typically the preserve of married men. Nyakudanga made history as one of a handful of young men who were badged before marriage.
His posthumous honorary ordination also is not common practice in The United Methodist Church, Zimbabwe’s Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa said.
“And yet the church keeps its doors open to all acts of grace. Ours is a denomination in the class of free church,” Nhiwatiwa said. “As the bishop of the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area, I responded to the nudges of the Spirit to bestow a posthumous honor on Mr. Nyakudanga on behalf of the church.”
Bishop Bennie D. Warner
Bishop Bennie D. Warner had reached what many would consider his career pinnacle when a military coup upended his life and changed his ministry forever.
He was both bishop in Liberia and the west African nation’s vice president when in April 1980, the military overthrew the Liberian government and began executing the elected leaders. At the time, Warner was attending the Council of Bishops meeting just before that year’s General Conference in Indianapolis.
He soon learned that if he and his wife tried to return, there was a machine gun with his name on it. So he began ministry anew in the United States, serving in Oklahoma, New York and eventually retiring in 2004 as a district superintendent in Arkansas. He died Oct. 27 at age 89.
Warner’s fondest childhood wish was to learn to read and write, but his remote Liberian village had no school. At age 15, he traveled miles to finally receive schooling at what is now Gbarnga United Methodist Mission. He supported his studies by working as a janitor at the mission. Thus began his passion for education that would lead him to become an educator, pastor and eventually national leader.
Retired Liberian Bishop John Innis remembers him as a mentor. Arkansas United Methodists remember him for his steadfastness even in the face of racist threats and his commitment to evangelism even in a Walmart parking lot.
“He was a humble soul,” recalled retired Bishop Janice Huie, who asked him to serve as a district superintendent on her cabinet. “He’d been a bishop. He’d been important enough in his own country that they tried to kill him. And, here he was going out to the Walmart parking lot to invite people to visit a United Methodist church.”
Bishop Clay Foster Lee Jr.
Bishop Clay Foster Lee Jr., who preached well into his 80s, died Nov. 11 at age 94.
Lee was elected bishop by the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference in July 1988. He led the Holston Conference, which encompasses eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and part of northern Georgia, until his retirement in 1996.
But before his time as bishop, some of his sermons in his years as a pastor gained national attention during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1964, as a 34-year-old pastor, he was assigned to First Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Mississippi. It was during that time that three civil rights workers — James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner — were kidnapped and murdered.
The sermon he preached on Dec. 6, 1964, “Herod Was in Christmas,” spoke to the presence of evil among good. He used several verses from Matthew 2, which recounts Herod’s intention to kill the baby Jesus. Lee associated Herod with bigotry and intolerance — traits he saw affecting otherwise decent white people in Philadelphia. That sermon gained the attention of reporters from New York, Baltimore and Los Angeles.
While a pastor at Galloway Memorial Methodist Church in Jackson, he led the church into a contract with a local television station to broadcast the Sunday morning service. Some of his sermons were included in “The Protestant Hour,” now known as Day1. Abingdon Press, an imprint of the United Methodist Publishing House, later published “Jesus Never Said Everyone Was Lovable, Lessons in Discipleship,” a collection of his “Protestant Hour” sermons.
“Bishop Clay Foster Lee Jr. was a towering figure as both pastor and bishop. He inspired through his storytelling, quick wit, deep friendships and strong work ethic,” said Bishop Connie Mitchell Shelton, a fellow Mississippian who now leads the North Carolina Conference.
“Bishop Lee’s resonant voice in preaching and singing stirred hearts and minds toward God.”
Alfred Talley
Alfred Talley was a pioneer as one of the first African Americans to become an executive in the fast-food industry. But even as he ascended to the upper reaches of corporate America, he and his wife, Barbara, found themselves contending with another American problem: housing discrimination.
Talley, a longtime member of Hope United Methodist Church in the Detroit suburb Southfield, Michigan, died Nov. 10 at age of 94.
Talley was born in Pennsylvania but his family moved to Detroit in 1931 after his father died. He graduated from Central Michigan University and married Barbara Wall, his childhood sweetheart, in 1949. The two shared 74 years of marriage.
After working with the Detroit Department of Street Railways, he moved his family to Los Angeles in 1961. There, he began his career as a lessee-manager of three Jack in the Box fast-food restaurants. He was promoted several times and went on to become executive vice president for Foodmaker Inc., then the fast-food chain’s franchisee operator.
Later, he received the “Five Star Operator Award” for his work as the KFC franchisee district manager for the eastern Michigan region.
Despite his professional achievements, he and his family encountered racial discrimination, especially when they sought to buy a house in Los Angeles. In an essay for United Methodist Insight, Barbara Talley recounted that after the couple made multiple offers on a house, they were told the owner would not sell because as Black people, “you’ll ruin the neighborhood.” The Talleys, with the support of his employer, took the owner to court under the Fair Housing Act of 1968. The Talleys prevailed but ultimately turned the house down. Their hope was to prevent housing discrimination moving forward.
The family eventually returned to the Detroit area where Alfred Talley continued working in various fast-food executive positions until he retired in 1990. He then worked part-time as a golf starter for Southfield. He also backed his wife as she became Southfield’s first Black city councilwoman.
At Talley’s funeral, the Rev. B. Kevin Smalls — Hope United Methodist Church’s senior pastor — praised him, his wife and two daughters for exemplifying the love described in 1 Corinthians 13. Smalls also praised Talley as an advocate of civil rights.
“When in California, he and his wife made sure that the housing industry recognized real quick that justice is not an option or a suggestion, but it will be realized for many people, starting with us,” Smalls said, referring to the couple. “They won those cases of turnaround and housing equality. They did it together, and he showed up. That was yet another way to say, ‘I love you.’”
Fran Alguire
Frances M. Alguire broke new ground as the first woman and one of the first laypeople to serve as president and chair of the World Methodist Council, the global ecumenical organization for denominations with Wesleyan roots.
From 1996 to 2001, the United Methodist — who went by Fran — led the organization that encompasses around 80 member churches on six continents.
Shortly after her election, Alguire recalled a woman in Detroit telling her, “You’re too little for such a big job.” Alguire replied that she was the same size as Methodism’s founder John Wesley. The two shared more than just their relatively short stature but also a commitment to making the world their parish.
Alguire died Nov. 15 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She was 97.
She grew up on a rural Michigan family farm during the Great Depression, attending the Methodist church that was both a community and spiritual center for its small town. She answered an altar call at age 8, leading to a lifelong commitment to Christian faith and service.
She served in the U.S. Army Cadet Nurse Corps from 1945 to1948 and became a registered nurse. She married Donald E. Alguire in 1949. During 62 years of marriage before his passing, the two shared their Christian faith and worked together as partners — exchanging leadership and support roles as circumstances required.
Both a longtime church volunteer and certified lay speaker, she took on a variety of denominational leadership roles over the decades. That included serving on the commission that plans General Conference and the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. She also was active in what is now United Women in Faith.
While president of the World Methodist Council, she met and worked with world leaders including Pope John Paul II, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former President Jimmy Carter.
She was often the only woman and lay person at world religious gatherings. Cynthia B. Astle, co-writer alongside Alguire of her biography “God Trusted a Woman,” recalled an incident when Swiss Guards initially blocked Alguire from joining other church leaders — all men — at an ecumenical service with the pope. Even after she pointed to the World Methodist Council president’s medallion around her neck, a Vatican staff member needed to intervene to ensure her entry.
At the end of her tenure with the World Methodist Council, she initiated a $20 million WMC Endowment Fund to support future lay people serving as council president. She also initiated the council’s leadership award “The Honorable Order of Jerusalem.”
She continued to speak out in mass media and in public speeches in support of women and laity in leadership roles. She was included as one of “350 Women Who Changed The World 1976-1996” in Working Women’s Magazine.
“Fran was a soft-spoken soul, but underneath her gentle, self-effacing exterior was a woman of steel, thoroughly committed to Jesus Christ and to the empowerment of women,” Astle wrote in United Methodist Insight, which she edits. “She was fond of quoting the title of our book, ‘God Trusted a Woman,’ saying, ‘God trusted a woman to give birth to Jesus, so why shouldn’t women be leaders in church?’”
Heather Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org. Information for this story was compiled from UM News reports by Sam Hodges, Eveline Chikwanah, Kathy L. Gilbert, Jim Patterson, Tim Tanton, Linda Bloom and Bernard Amani Mudiri.
Joe Henderson of the Florida Conference also contributed.